On 02/17/09 our representative found that your gas meter was not recording your usage correctly on or about 10/02/07. Since service was still available while the meter was stopped, we estimate your use from 12/19/08 to 02/17/09 per Illinois Commerce Commissions Administrative Code Part 500.240 regarding non registering meter usage. The estimate is based on prior year’s usage at your location.
Dates Original Billed Usage Adjusted Usage
12/19/09-01/06/09 4 67
01/06/09-02/04/09 0 93
02/04/09- 02/17/09 0 39
02/17/09- 03/05/09 153 153
Your next bill will include the stopped meter adjustment. The adjustment will be noted as a miscellaneous charge at the end of your bill.
Ameren
Customer Service
First off I have seen not seen a fluctuations in my bill. Secondly I have always paid on time. Third can they go back that long ago and say OOPS we forgot to charge you for the gas usage. The ironic thing is when I called them today they could not even tell me the figure I would be looking at paying. Is this legal?
Anything suggestions you have would be appreciated. This is a new one for me.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the letter cites a statute that appears to explicitly make estimating your bill legal and provide a means to do so. (I don’t have the statute in front of me, so I’m not sure what it says.)
No question it’s legal. I think your real question is what can you do about it. Did you just move into the premise being served by the gas meter? The regs state they can correct for up to six months but they are only going back two (I assume 12/19/2008 is really 12/19/2008)
They’re also basing estimated consumption on last year’s usage. If you’re a new occupant, you can probably make a legitimate case to the ICC that basing usage on the previous occupants is totally inappropriate because [ fill in the blanks ].
If you’re willing to fight this you may knock the back billed amount down by a substantial percentage – is it worth your time? It looks like they’re going to back bill you for 200-units, assuming those are therms @ average price of $1/th, that’s $200. (If the 200 is the meter index, check your bill to see what the multiplying factor is and adjust accordingly).
Happened with my electric company a couple of months ago, except in my case, I’d been calling for close to a year to let them know that nothing was registering. IMHO they overestimated based on previous usage, when the furnace fan and A/C was hooked up to that meter (it’s been on a separate meter for a year). Luckily I’m on the average payment plan (I travel a lot and don’t worry about bills), so I had a huge credit balance that covered the usage when they finally got around to fixing things.